Howard Ikemoto Obituary

Howard Ikemoto
June 12, 1939 - Dec. 31, 2020
Santa Cruz
Howard Ikemoto died late in the evening on the last day of 2020. He was 81 years old.

Howard is survived by his daughters Ami and Reiko, his son-in-law, Robert, his grandson Matteo, and four of his siblings: Jane, Nancy, Daisy and Eddie. He also leaves behind many friends and a long and storied career of inspiring others to discover themselves through artmaking.
Howard was born in Sacramento, California, in 1939. He spent his early years in the Tule Lake War Relocation Center along with most of his family, an experience that deeply influenced him throughout his life. The internment camp is also where Howard first became captivated with drawing. After his family's release from the camp, Howard continued to draw as a means of communicating his thoughts while he learned to speak English.
Howard eventually turned his love of self-expression into a lifelong vocation. After high school, he went on to earn a master's degree in art with a concentration in printmaking and painting. Shortly after graduation in 1966, Howard began teaching art at Cabrillo College in Aptos, California, where he remained an extremely popular instructor for 34 years. During his tenure at Cabrillo, Howard taught every art medium offered with the exception of photography. As a teacher, Howard most enjoyed inspiring students, young and old, to take risks and to develop their unique artistic voice. "They're just marks on a paper," he famously quipped to new students who were self-conscious about artmaking. Howard believed strongly that art was for everyone. He encouraged generations of students to enjoy the process of artistic self-discovery. And he lived what he preached: In addition to an accomplished teacher, Howard was a prolific artist whose work was featured in numerous galleries and museums during his career.

At home with his family, Howard indulged his playful side, constructing elaborate, two-story cardboard forts. He loved goofy, homemade Halloween costumes and creative home repairs. Howard was a marginal board game strategist and downright terrible at Pictionary. He stubbornly refused to draw stick figures like everyone else and ran out the clock on every turn, often burning valuable seconds with unnecessary details and shading.
In his free time, Howard loved watching sports, but most of all, he loved new adventures. When his daughters were still young, Howard and his wife Jeanne moved to Italy on a year-long sabbatical where he dragged his children into every church within walking distance (there were many) to witness the paintings of his favorite Renaissance masters, up close.
Howard truly appreciated all forms of self-expression from experimental jazz to athletic grace on the basketball court to the odd way a customer held himself while waiting at the fish market. Howard's sketchbook was always on him and he filled its pages with unwitting subjects who made the mistake of standing around in public – the bagel shop, the airport lounge, the DMV. Anywhere people waited in line was fair game. When his daughters objected to Howard sketching unsuspecting strangers, he often responded with genuine surprise: "But that guy has such a fabulous nose! Look at the way his hat is sliding off his head! He's too interesting not to draw!" Sometimes he'd relent under protest. Howard was especially sensitive to the feelings of others. Kindness and compassion really mattered to him. And he held these values in the highest regard. Except in the case of gophers. Toward them, vengeance was swift.
For most of his 81 years, Howard lived a very rich, at times complicated life. He was a mentor and a good friend to many, a husband first to Jeanne Ikemoto and later to Julie Connell. He was an important member of his community and a loyal son and brother.
Howard was diagnosed with dementia in 2014, and as the disease slowly robbed him of every form of expression, one by one, he clung hard to whatever means he had left to communicate. He did remarkably well conveying emotional nuance with just his eyebrows. Howard passed peacefully on New Year's Eve, his daughters with him until the end. He will be deeply missed.
Arrangements for a celebratory memorial will be postponed until late summer 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. For those who wish to commemorate Howard's life, the family would greatly appreciate donations to the Cabrillo College Foundation for the Howard Ikemoto Scholarship. Checks may be mailed to Cabrillo College Foundation, 6500 Soquel Drive, Aptos, CA 95003 or to donate online, please visit foundation.cabrillo.edu and enter in memory of Howard Ikemoto in the special notes. You can also call 831-479-6338.

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Published by Santa Cruz Sentinel on Jan. 10, 2021.

Memories and Condolences
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9 Entries

Trisha Husome

May 3, 2025

Howard came to mind while I was ruminating over the current horrors of the the federal government disappearing immigrants to foreign prisons. I remembered a talk that I attended at the McPherson Center in Santa Cruz at the opening of Howard's gallery installation reflecting on his experience at Tule Lake Japanese internment camp. He wept as he spoke and it stirred me deeply as did the art. I recall one piece which was a small table with a bowl on top and other meager articles representing his memory of the room or eating area of his family at the camp. I felt it to my bones. This talk and exhibit is my only experience of knowing Howard Ikemoto but I have never forgotten him. I am so sorry to learn of his passing. I feel so fortunate to know of him and his work. My sympathy to his family.

Robin Cook

September 1, 2022

I didn't know Howard well, only meeting him a few times. I worked for his with Jeanne at Santa Cruz Operations in the 80's and I was also a student at Cabrillo where he taught. His contribution to the art world is significant and I know he will be missed. My condolences to his family and friends.

Michael Tompkins

January 13, 2021

In 1976 I started attending Cabrillo College, hoping to take courses I could transfer to UC Berkeley to study Architecture. In those days it required skills in architectural rendering, and I had less than none, so I was pointed to the Art department to take a drawing class. Dumb luck put me in a class with Howard. I never studied architecture again. He was a gifted teacher, not only at the fundamentals of the craft but addressing the elusive nature of making images. He could conjure the magic of marks becoming pictures and also the formidable potholes and roadblocks of our own psyche. He was remarkably generous with his time and spirit, opening the print lab on Saturdays for extra instruction and a sense of comraderie. He was also competitive, as I learned from more than a few sessions throwing darts at a bar in Soquel. I can’t overestimate the benevolent effect he had on me and I’m certain my story is far from unique. I’m writing this more than 40 years later, taking a break from work. Drawing of course, in my studio. The world is a better place for hosting your life Howard, though I doubt you’d admit it.

Derek Sherinian

January 11, 2021

I am sorry to hear about the loss of Howard, my condolences to Reiko and Ami.
I have fond memories of Howard growing up and he and my father were good friends. He used to host ping pong tournaments at his house, and he would join my dad and I going to see SF Giant games.
I always remember Howard's smile and great energy. May he Rest In Peace.

George Rivera

January 11, 2021

Significant artist, great teacher, exemplary human being, and my friend

Susan Hillhouse Leask

January 10, 2021

My heart goes out to Howard’s family and closest friends. I can only imagine the sadness that you all may be experiencing. May your lovely memories of him sustain you as you process your great loss.

Howard was a treasured artist, teacher, and friend to all who were blessed by his presence. I will especially remember him when I see a lotus floating in murky water.

Penny Hanna

January 10, 2021

I'm so sorry to hear about the loss of this incredible person who brought so much light into the world. After he retired from Cabrillo I became Howard's first saxophone teacher in 2000 when he began a new adventure after retirement of learning to play some of his favorite jazz tunes, starting first on his old Buescher and then with a new Yamaha tenor sax. Howard was incredibly kind and supportive to the student who followed his lesson, a kid who had since become a professional jazz artist in Europe. We had many wonderful, funny, and informative conversations between pieces, and Howard was great at coming to lessons with his own goals, knowing exactly which tunes he wanted to work on. He was a joy to be around. In 2017 I purchased his inspired "Stranger Looking Inwards" brush pen drawing. It reminds me a bit of Howard sitting back, relaxed in his chair, blowing his tenor on "As Time Goes By".

Stephen Rudzinski

January 10, 2021

I took my first class in 1971 and a total of 3 including printmaking and color and design, I never forgot that the first time he read my name in class he looked at me and said I have a good name for an artist. I was offered a job in the Sculpture dept. in 72 and worked on campus till 95. Howard came to my show in Capitola with Holt Murray and whispered that he liked my new paintings a lot. That made my year/life to hear a compliment from him. He didn't mix words and spoke his mind/truth. We were friends, I'm sad right now. He was a warrior, I admired him. Good bye ol friend.

Joe Bentley

January 10, 2021

Howard was my teacher for Drawing and Composition in 1967. Although I was not an art student (Math major), I very much appreciated his influence. I may have been his least talented student ever. My grade in the class was a C. I remember drawing in the class and Mr Ikemoto was walk around the room and make suggestions to students about their work. His comment to me was "draw what you see, not what you think you see". I think there was more to that suggestion that its application to drawing.

Howard was truly a great teacher and I am very glad to have had him.

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